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Tuesday, November 11, 2014

TV Recap: Castle 7-6 - The Time of Our Lives

I’m going to go on record as saying I’m still not a big fan
of the Castle kidnapped storyline. I may still change my mind, and
they have done a good job of getting things relatively back to normal, but
overall, it’s one of my least favorite things they’ve done on the show.

However, I keep comparing this storyline and the interrupted
wedding to the other one I’ve experienced – the one from Lois and Clark almost 20 years ago. (And by the time I
watched the show on DVD, I knew what was coming before I saw it and it still
bothered me.) For those who aren’t familiar, the duo were set to marry
during February sweeps of season 3. However, the Lois that Clark
married at that point was a clone. That took several episodes to
resolve, and then the real Lois developed amnesia. From there, Clark
almost left in order to take his place as a leader of a colony of his
people. And that was the May cliffhanger. The duo finally
did marry, but not until the November sweeps of season 4. By then,
many of the fans of the show were upset and had stopped watching. Really,
who can blame them? So by comparison, Castle has done well. Even
though I don’t like what they did in May and what it has set off, it’s still
better than what it could have been. For that I am thankful.

And yes, I did kind of already spoil the ending of last
night’s episode, although I think the previews pretty much had given it away a
couple of weeks ago. But keep reading to see how we got there.

See, there actually was a mystery last night. A
man with a briefcase attached to his wrist is riding in a car. A van
intercepts them and men with masks shoot the driver and the man with the
briefcase. They then steal the briefcase.

Castle and Beckett arrive on the scene even before Lanie and
Esposito this time since the two supporting characters are together when the
call comes in. As a result, Castle is looking at the body early, and
he finds a footprint on the briefcase wearer’s shirt. He recognizes
the odor of coal, and he insists that they stop at an abandoned coal factory
that is on the way to the place Beckett wants to go.

It turns out to be a good thing they stopped. They
spot the briefcase inside the abandoned factory. It’s open and
inside it is an ancient artifact. Castle picks it up and sets off an
alarm. People come out and start firing, and one of them throws a
smoke grenade. As Castle and Beckett dive out of the way, he crashes
through a door and blacks out briefly. However, when he wakes up, no
one is around at all.

He rushes back to the precinct to find that no one knows who
he is at all. He quickly figures out he’s in an alternative universe
where he and Beckett never met. He figures out through some internet
research this is what that artifact can reportedly do, and it is the result of
the discussions he and Beckett have had about how their lives would have been
different if they hadn’t met six years ago that he wound up in this reality.

As a result, Castle becomes obsessed with finding that
artifact and using it to get back to his reality. See, the
alternative reality gang is working on the same case that Castle’s reality was
working on, so he worms his way into the investigation. They follow
the trail to a warehouse and a fake artifact that crumbles when Castle picks it
up. However, they do pick up on a man with a rugby team’s logo tattooed
on his neck. Castle figures out where they show those games, and he
tricks Beckett into going there with him. They spot the man, and the
result is the man is arrested, but he won’t talk. Still, Beckett
knows they have the killer with evidence they find with a search warrant, so
the case is closed. Castle isn’t satisfied, but she is.

Meanwhile, we’ve gotten to know how things have changed in
this world where Castle and Beckett had never met. Beckett becomes
Captain of the precinct, but she is unhappy with all the paperwork and misses
being on the streets. She has also never solved her mother’s
murder. Esposito and Lanie dated and broke up, and he hasn’t gotten
over her even though she has moved on and is now pregnant. Ryan got
so buried in work after Beckett’s promotion that he let Jenny go and the two
never married.

Life for Castle and his family isn’t too much better. Martha
is the only one doing well, with her fame as an actress reaching new
heights. (In fact, Ryan is a groupie). Castle tried to
write a serious novel after killing off Storm, and it bombed. He was
so depressed that Martha had to help with the mortgage. Meanwhile,
he drifted apart from Alexis, who dyed her hair black and moved to California
to live with her mom. She’s working at a non-profit but feels like
her work isn’t making a difference.

The morning after the man is arrested, Castle goes back to
the coal factory, hoping to find the artifact. What he finds is the
developer who has bought the factory in both realities. The
developer has been searching for the artifact and is obsessed with the legends
about it shifting reality for people. And yes, he was the man who
hired the killer we arrested yesterday. Beckett shows up and tries
to arrest the developer. Castle’s speech about the loose ends got to
her. However, the developer’s henchmen shoot at Beckett, and Castle
jumps in front of her, saving her life. As he lies on the ground
bleeding out, he blacks out…

…And wakes up back in our reality where he’d just blacked
out for a second and the artifact is really just a cool old item. Beckett
had called for backup and the bad guys, including the developer and the same
two henchmen we’d just seen, are being led away. It would have been
a simple case if Castle hadn’t blacked out for a minute or two.

This whole thing really makes Castle realize how much he
wants to marry Beckett, and he asks her to marry him, right now. And
they do in a simple ceremony with Martha, Alexis, and Beckett’s dad as the only
people attending. Their vows are simple, sweet, and very, very
touching and so them. Yes, I absolutely loved this scene. I
don’t know if it was worth the wait from May, but it was very well done. I
would have liked to see the rest of the main cast involved, but I didn’t need
it. It worked well as it was.

Okay, yes, I admit my grasp on the plot wasn’t as strong as
normal. But the fun of the episode was the alternate reality version
of the characters. And they had to leave time for that final wedding
scene, which just made it for me. If you’ve been skipping Castle
this year, this was an episode to watch.

Which just leaves us with one question – was it worth the
wait from May for this episode? Share your thoughts on the alternate
reality and the wedding in the comments.

I still do not like the finale - The Episode That Shall Not Be Named. I am very, very happy with this episode though. I would have been happy if they had gotten married in May, though now that we got this ceremony, it wouldn't have been as perfect for them I don't think. So I'm still annoyed by what they did..and really, I don't know that I'll ever get past my dislike of that episode, but I'm happy now. Oh so very happy.

I don't know that anyone will ever count that finale as a good episode. And we will probably never like the Castle missing story line as a result. But they are working hard to make up for it this season.

I have seen some people claiming they are fine with the finale and like it. I don't. I still haven't watched it again and I've had the DVD set since it came out - yes I know I'm behind posting about it.

I don't like how they set up the new mythology tied to Rick at all. They could have done that without messing with the original wedding. Still not sure what I think overall about him being missing and not remember anything. The first two episodes of this season are the only ones I haven't rewatched from the DVR this year. I just really hate that they made it look like he willingly left Kate at first - not that I believed he did - and how Esposito turned on him immediately. That still bothers me. But I liked those episodes better than The Episode That Shall Not Be Named.

That's part of the problem with the beginning of this season - to us it was like Espo turned on Castle right away. To them it was supposed to be two months. Doubts can grow in that time, but it just didn't work well for us.

I loved this episode. It was so fun to see that "what might have been" and boy, it was a doozy. I liked that Castle was trying to give people advice so their lives would be more like his real world - like telling Ryan he should call Jenny, or making it up with Alexis - who does not look good in black hair! Or Beckett should just not settle for the simple answers when it comes to solving a case.

Now for the wedding - beautiful and it actually made me tear up which seldom happens. Thought it was beautiful, simple and well done. Yes, I was upset at the end of the season and I believe I even mentioned after the first episode of this season that maybe they should have just ended Castle with the wedding and called it quits on the series. But now they have their Castle groove back so I'm happy they've kept going. Next week looks like another fun episode.

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I'm an accountant by trade but a reviewer at heart. Top reviewer at Amazon. Love to read, watch TV and movies, and listen to music. And I'm always looking to share and discuss what I am currently consuming.

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